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US Bank to help Somali wire transfer businesses with transactions

The owner of a Minneapolis company that helps Somali immigrants send money to relatives in east Africa says it will be much easier to do business now that a major bank in Minnesota has agreed to process the transactions.

U.S. Bank says it is opening an account with the money service business Dahab-shil.

In late 2011 the only Minnesota bank that had been handling the transfers closed its accounts with Somali money wiring businesses over concerns cash could wind up in the hands of terrorists .

Dahab-shil owner Mohamed Nor said he checks potential recipients of money against a federal watch list.

Nor says remittances from family in the U.S. are vital to people in Somalia because that country lacks a working financial system.

"The money wiring, or MSBs, are the only way that people here can support their families back in Somalia."

Nor says he has been using an out-of-state bank to handle the transfers for more than a year.